Xaiden never found a great time for that awkward conversation with Jax. What was he supposed to say? 'Hey, I don't like Eliana, go for it if you want to' out of the blue? So Xaiden put it off and, like similar instances in the past, time more or less resolved the tension in the group even without his direct involvement.
Eventually, Jax and Eliana stopped bickering and started to subtly avoid each other. It wasn't perfect, but this wasn't a bad outcome either as far as Xaiden was concerned. Their relationship was between the two of them, whether they date, break up, be friends or act cold towards each other. Even if Xaiden had played an inadvertent role in the situation, shouldn't Jax be the one to bring it up first? Xaiden thought this or something similar every time he felt a twinge of regret or concern. His thoughts would typically continue along the lines of, And who said you could call dibs on liking someone anyways? Even if I did like her, he should just do his thing regardless and not act like my feelings are more important than his. I never asked him to do that!
Still, the repercussions of this cold war between his best friend and their gang's perfect alibi caused more inconveniences than Xaiden anticipated. It became increasingly difficult to get everyone together at once, with one making an excuse not to show up if they knew the other was already there. He hoped they would be on better terms before school started back up this coming Ripening, there was still plenty of time left for things to cool off.
As Flowering continued to crawl by, Xaiden focused on the bright side of the current group dynamics instead. After all, he had the cabin all to himself more often than not, and this made a great place to think, write, read, even work out. Sometimes he thought about just moving in here permanently, but he knew it'd put the others at greater risk if he did. So he just enjoyed the moments he could, and left the rest to the capable hands of time.
It was one of these quiet days at the cabin that something truly unexpected happened.
The printer attached to the radio spat out a sheet of crisp clean white paper onto the dusty floors, causing a swirl of fresh pollen to dance around it. Xaiden picked it up and studied the small dots and lines at the top of one side of the mostly empty page. "What on Zenith is this?" Xaiden wondered aloud.
The standoff between Jax and Eliana resulted in them both getting their signals crossed thinking the other was going to be here today, meaning neither of them showed up. Ewen was sick, not that he was any more likely to know anything more about the radio than Xaiden. Despite being on his own, Xaiden still liked to think out loud.